Goodreads Blurb

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.

My Review

An unforgettable true story of survival and love. This story of Lale truly made me feel and see everything he went through while in the concentration camp. Lale was a hero that won’t give up. If he can save someone today then he was doing right, even if that meant he might not survive. I truly couldn’t put the book down. I needed to keep reading to make sure Lale survived and reunited with Gita. Their were many hero’s that helped save life’s. Having to read first hand what it was to see death, pain, hurt, hunger and survivalist you are able to truly see and feel this horrible event that occur in our History. I feel that I wouldn’t have the strength to overcome what everyone went through in the Holocaust. Everyone needs to read this powerful story. I rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

She is a Native of New Zealand now resident in Australia, working in a large public hospital in Melbourne. For several years she studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an academy award winning Screenwriter in the U.S. In 2003, she was introduced to an elderly gentleman “who might just have a story worth telling”. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed her life, as her friendship grew and he embarked on a journey of self scrutiny, entrusting the inner most details of his life during the Holocaust. She originally wrote Lale’s story as a screenplay – which ranked high in international competitions – before reshaping it into my debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

This beautiful shirt can be yours for only 20.00 plus shipping. The funds will help support Book Lovers Unite World Suicide Prevention Day. I just purchases mine. They have them in three colors and are unisex. 6 more days to go 10 out of 50 sold. Suicide has affected many people’s life’s. Let stand strong and prevent suicide and spread mental health awareness!

Facebook Event https://www.facebook.com/events/388388565311132/

Link to shirts https://www.bonfire.com/world-suicide-prevention-day-2019/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=campaign_page&utm_campaign=world-suicide-prevention-day-2019&utm_content=default&fbclid=IwAR3_kbTgVs3jneyqz35mvT56qqp9VYqVJqHYouk0ZRWSwE6wod8d7u516-c

Goodreads Blurb

Mark Rubin’s family is missing—and the police won’t get involved because all the evidence indicates that his wife left willingly. So the successful Baltimore furrier turns to Tess Monaghan, hoping she can help him find his wife and three children. Tess doesn’t quite know what to make of Rubin, who doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. According to her client, he and his beautiful wife, Natalie, had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished.

Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread across the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife and the children who have been moving furtively from state to state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A mysterious man is traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as “handsome” and “charming” but otherwise unremarkable. And the deeper Tess digs, the more she suspects that the motive behind Natalie’s reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe.

An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is already beginning to unfold, as memory begets rage, and rage begets desperation…and murder. Suddenly, much more than one man’s future happiness and stubborn pride are in peril. For the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.

My Review

A thriller with a wild goose chase. This story was filled with lies, revenge, love and reality. Mark thought he had the perfect wife but she was far from it. Natalie tricked her way into becoming the perfect wife for a religious Jewish man but with a hidden secret. Natalie disappears with her three children leaving Mark devastated. He hires Tess who is a private investigator. Tess unravels this mystery through each web she encounters one more thread of lies and secrets she unravels. Being on the runaway with three small children is definitely that the getaway that Zeke dreamed of. Natalie was in love with Zeke but she really didn’t see his true intentions, especially with the children which he was not expecting to be part of their life. My favorite character was Isaac. He is such a smart child. He loves to read, loves asking questions and didn’t take crap from Zeke. This thriller will keep you on your toes while the web of deceit with tangle you in the mix. I rated 3 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Laura Lippman is a New York Times bestselling novelist who has won more than twenty awards for her fiction, including the Edgar Award—and been nominated for thirty more. Since her debut in 1997, she has published twenty-one novels, a novella, a children’s book, and a collection of short stories. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. LitHub named her one of the “essential” female crime writers of the last hundred years. She also has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Vulture, Real Simple, and T magazine. The film of her novel Every Secret Thing was produced by Frances McDormand and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, and Dakota Fanning. Laura lives in Baltimore with her husband, David Simon, and their daughter

Goodreads Blurb

A runaway bestseller in France, Clémentine Beauvais’s In Paris With You is a love story you won’t soon forget. 

Eugene and Tatiana had fallen in love that summer ten years ago. But certain events stopped them from getting to truly know each other and they separated never knowing what could have been. 

But one busy morning on the Paris metro, Eugene and Tatiana meet again, no longer the same teenagers they once were. 

What happened during that summer? Does meeting again now change everything? With their lives ahead of them, can Eugene and Tatiana find a way to be together after everything? 

Written in gorgeous verse, In Paris With You celebrates the importance of first love. Funny and sometimes bittersweet this book has universal appeal for anyone who has been in love.

My Review

A beautifully written novel about a love so true and strong. A story filled with words that grasp your attention. Written in poem stanza, filled with rumbling of words that send you raising after the characters thoughts, dreams and reality. The characters have vivid day dreams and times where they talk to themselves, giving you a picture of their thoughts and feelings. I loved how the author would take you from the past and back to the present. Author freely threw words, phrases and poems to bring you a love story of a lifetime. It was ironic that Tatiana was the one obsessed with Eugene. The tables turned 10 years later and Eugene was found with regrets and true lust for Tatiana. Each character went through a phase of sleepless nights because of those strong feelings of love. A book that will send you spinning for Tatiana and Eugene to become one while you seek the same for yourself. I rated a 4 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

She was born in Paris in 1989 and though she started to read children’s books pretty early, she somehow never stopped. As a result, she became a writer, reader and student of children’s literature. She has been living and studying in Cambridge (UK) for seven years and became a doctor. Well, not that type that saves people’s lives. The type that scribbles ‘PhD’ after their name and rambles on about beauty, truth and the value of (all) literature. Worth striving for, I think!

The other thing she does is write books – children’s books, surprisingly enough. In fact, it’s not ‘the other thing’. It’s the first thing she ever did, really – long before she heard that you could actually analyse books for a living, she wanted to write books for a living. So she started writing, and ultimately getting published – in French first, and now in English as well. Her first series of children’s books in English, led by self-made super-heroine Sesame Seade, was published in 2013 by Hodder Children’s Books!

It’s everyone’s favorite. You can find it at Lindy Bop https://www.lindybopusa.com/bletchley-books-turquoise.html

Goodreads Blurb

A charming and inspiring story about embracing your weird, written and illustrated by Criminal Minds actor/director, Matthew Gray Gubler.

Rumple Buttercup has five crooked teeth, three strands of hair, green skin, and his left foot is slightly bigger than his right.

He is weird.

Join him as he and Candy Corn Carl, his imaginary friend made of trash, learn the joy of individuality as well as the magic of belonging.

My Review

A perfect book to share with children to teach them that we are all different and have our own personal flaws. Rumple was different because of his green skin color, three strands of hair, 5 crooked teeth and one foot was bigger than the other. He lived in a drain hiding from everyone. He saw everyone normal and he was scared he won’t be accepted into the community. Rumple was always alone and decided to make a friend out of garbage he found. Unfortunately, he only had a one way conversation. He would only leave the drain when it was dark and with a banana peel on his head. He thought he blended in with the garbage but he was noticed by everyone. Rumple was super excited because the only event of the year in which he goes out in the daylight was coming. Unfortunately, an unexpected situation occurred and he no longer felt he had the courage to leave outdoors without his disguise. But to his surprise he was very much missed by everyone. They knew he loved this wonderful event and they opened their hearts to Rumple. Hearing what everyone had to say about their appearance and how different they were made Rumple feel he was accepted and loved.

A very touching story that opens our hearts to love others and be accepting of their differences. The illustrations were superb and the story was perfect. Rumple was just adorable. I would definitely be his friend.  I rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Writes, directs, paints, acts and knows magic. He has a squeaky left knee, the posture of an earthworm and he looks like a noodle when he dances. This is his first book he wrote it just for you!

Congratulation Winners:
cookreadsleep
Margaret Yelton
Linda May
Bunnyclem
Becky Rhoades

Fresh off the press. I received three copies. I will do another giveaway with a second book with a pair of socks at a later time. So you have two chances. I am giving away one copy of Whisper Network with the fabulous book socks. Please follow my blog and leave a comment to enter. Good Luck!

Goodreads Blurb

Four women learn their boss (a man who’s always been surrounded by rumors about how he treats women) is next in line to be CEO—what will happen when they decide enough is enough?

Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita are four women who have worked at Truviv, Inc., for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Ames is a complicated man, a man they’ve all known for a long time, a man who’s always been surrounded by…whispers. Whispers that have always been ignored by those in charge. But the world has changed, and the women are watching Ames’s latest promotion differently. This time, they’ve decided enough is enough. 

Sloane and her colleagues set in motion a catastrophic shift within every floor and department of the Truviv offices. All four women’s lives—as women, colleagues, mothers, wives, friends, even adversaries—will change dramatically as a result.

“If only you had listened to us,” they tell us on page one, “none of this would have happened.”

Goodreads Blurb

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice. 

My Review

I truly wanted to love it since everyone was loving the book. I am not a fan about everything a rock band finds normal like the drugs, drinking and partying like that’s what life is all about. The characters were great. I did love the interview format and the songs that were created for this book. It had great leading lady characters that were strong willed, outspoken and fighters. Relationships with your coworkers and family is hard when you depend on each other and most times one person always takes the lead. This book was filled with heartbreak, sadness, love, despair and life in all it’s thunders. I rated 3 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, and two other novels. She lives in Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @tjenkinsreid.

I got to see Tom Hanks last November at the 92Y in NYC. I was hoping to take a picture of him but we weren’t allowed. You can view the full hour he was in conversation through this link https://www.facebook.com/92ndstreetY/videos/tom-hanks-with-gayle-king/2269573309940331/

I was on the front row with the blond hair 🙂 Let me tell you the little story on how I pre-ordered a sign copy through Barnes and Nobles and the book never arrived. I was super excited to read this book and pre-ordered the moment I saw it. Barnes and Noble sent me a tracking number with UPS. The package never updated from then. It seems someone at UPS decided to keep my book or maybe someone from B&N. I called B&N to find out if I could get a second copy of the signed book, but they were all sold out. I was devastated!! I went to Ebay to see if I could find the book signed at a reasonable price. I decided to purchase one that was way more than what I paid for it. Eventually got a second signed copy when I went to the event last year.

Goodreads Blurb

A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country’s civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game–and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN’s newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down and out motel, romance, and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!

My Review

Was excited that Tom Hanks had written a book and couldn’t wait to read it. I am not a fan of short stories. Felt like it took a long time to finish reading this book. I would get lost in some of the stories. I loved that most of the stories were of the past. I also loved the different type writers that opened each chapter. Overall, some of the stories were very good and interesting others were confusing and boring. I rated 3 out of 5 stars

Author Biography

Thomas Jeffrey “Tom” Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his roles in Big (1988), Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Mail (both 1998), Cast Away (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Captain Phillips, and Saving Mr. Banks (both 2013), as well as for his voice work in the animated films The Polar Express (2004) and the Toy Story series.

Goodreads Blurb

After two years of living on cheap beer and little else in a bitterly cold tiny cabin outside an abandoned, crumbling mansion, young programmers Shawn Eagle and Billy Stafford have created something that could make them rich: a revolutionary computer they name Eagle Logic.

But the hard work and escalating tension have not been kind to their once solid friendship—Shawn’s girlfriend Emily has left him for Billy, and a third partner has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. While Billy walks away with Emily, Shawn takes Eagle Logic, which he uses to build a multi-billion-dollar company that eventually outshines Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined.

Years later, Billy is a failure, beset by poverty and addiction, and Shawn is the most famous man in the world. Unable to let the past be forgotten, Shawn decides to resurrect his and Billy’s biggest failure: a next-generation computer program named Nellie that can control a house’s every function. He decides to set it up in the abandoned mansion they worked near all those years ago. But something about Nellie isn’t right—and the reconstruction of the mansion is plagued by accidental deaths. Shawn is forced to bring Billy back, despite their longstanding mutual hatred, to discover and destroy the evil that lurks in the source code.

My Review

I was a little disappointed with this book. I was expecting a full blown haunted house but ran short of terrifying. Nellie was created by Shawn and Billy in hope’s of creating a computer system to control all aspects of your everyday life. The mansion had a terrifying past that haunted the mansion and Shawn. I was hoping for judgment day like terminator. The story was slow at the beginning than it started to get a little more interesting. It had a few good parts but nothing as thrilling as his prior series. I rated 3 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Ezekiel Boone was born in Canada but lives in upstate New York, with his wife and children. The internationally bestselling THE HATCHING series (THE HATCHING, SKITTER, and ZERO DAY) has sold in twelve countries and nine languages. THE MANSION, Ezekiel Boone’s fourth novel, is out December 2018. When not writing thrillers, Zeke writes acclaimed literary fiction under the name Alexi Zentner. Zeke has two poorly behaved dogs and enjoys the outdoors.